A rare moment of sunshine and 20 degrees on forecast, too good an opportunity to miss so it was off to Gronant in North Wales as a birder friend had told me about the Little Terns and one of the most important breeding colonies. We arrived at 9am walking from Shore Road car park down to the coastal area which has a protected, fenced off area with monitoring by volunteers. A lovely walk along easy pathways bordered by tall coastal grasses, reeds and sand dunes with a small hut where we found the volunteers and little bird hide overlooking the nesting areas (now mostly empty as many chicks are now fledged). We walked along the beach being mindful not to disturb any of the tern chicks which would still be being fed by their parents; although some photos look close, we were quite some distance from the chicks and used the 500mm reach lens cropping each photo very hard but maintaining reasonable detail (something I love when using CRAW ! )
Without further ado, meet the Little Terns and their chicks along with a few other species.
large expanse of sand and shingle which the birds use; fenced off dedicated nesting areas were closer to the mainland on the right, just out of view
The little bird hide ..... only one opening window so was pretty warm inside on a 20 degree day !
Little Terns like other long distance migrant birds are pretty nippy in flight so it took me a while to get any photos of them. !!
This one had found a sand eel .......
and here are the very cute looking chicks ........... according to my expert pal, they are the fastest fledging species in the world. !! young are able to fly at just 14 days old.
Only downside is that they leave the protected area at just 9 or 10 days old and can become vulnerable to predation by Kestrels, Foxes, Stoats, etc.,
you might be able to detect that these chicks have been ringed, important as data which can be collected from their west African wintering grounds can provide vital information
a little group of three which have left the safe compounds and now out on the exposed beach area; not great photo as still taken from distance so as not to spook the chicks into flight or their parents monitoring them from above
Right, that's about enough photos for you to be going on with. I will return later with photos of other species we saw of Ringed Plover, Stonechat, Gatekeeper butterfly, Common Darter dragonfly and what I think is a Skylark ?
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Regards, Hazel
What a lovely set of pics Hazel, I love Terns they are such elegant flyers. The chicks are amazing, almost look like a tiny wader. We've been watching them at Minsmere over the past few weeks, mostly common and a few Sandwich flying out over the sea and bringing back sand eels.
Another great set of photos Hazel, your plant is definitely Sea Holly. Looks like you had super weather as well, the sun is actually shiny here in Suffolk today for once.Nice to see the dragonfly and butterfly pics, I think there's been a distinct lack of both recently, especially notice it in our garden with no signs of dragons over the pond and no butterfly's on the buddleia.
Mike B said:Mrs PR has gone all gooey over the little tern chick.....
Watch yourself Mike if she has a twinkle in her eye ... ... Might be time to head for The Hideout ...
As we visited a quiet Burton Mere Wetlands yesterday we decided to head back to Gronant for another look at the Terns, however, what a difference two days made as they had all virtually gone !!! We saw two adults airborne but no chicks at all so it was eerily quiet of the usual adult "shrill" call. The tide was well out as were the waders but did find what I think is a Dunlin plus the reed/dune birds of Linnet, Stonechat and Skylark plus a gull raiding a litter bin on the holiday homes camp site !!
First of all I will give you the interesting statistics for the breeding terns as I spent a lovely 15 or 20 minutes chatting with one of the rangers there who was involved in the counting and monitoring of the penned off areas for the terns..... which were now being dismantled as all nests are finished and terns mostly gone.
A count a couple of days ago was: 169 nests with 157 successful chicks That is a fantastic result so goes to show that the Denbighshire council's special program of protection has worked well. It is also a remarkable result because at the start of the season so many nests failed when the stormy/inclement weather caused many nests with eggs to be buried in sand. Hats off to the council workers and volunteers for their hard work and protection of these beautiful seabirds. Can't wait to go back next May/June !!
So with no photos from Burton Mere or the Terns at Gronant, here's what you're left with !! but who doesn't love a Dunlin ? Please correct if wrong as I'm not very good at wader ID and had to search in my books for this one !
This ringed plover wasn't too happy with the Dunlin being on his patch as it chased it further away shortly after this pic !
Meadow Pipit, thanks to Rob for correct ID
and three distant Linnet, hard cropped. Think the two on the right may be juveniles
Only record shot again ,...........I went for Reed Warbler for ID on this one ...... again a few juveniles around ...
And almost back at Shore Road car park saw this large gull raiding the litter bin ! Herring Gull ?
I've not been there. Looks a good option for this time of year.
Edit....just noticed in first batch of photos, a meadow pipit. One labelled, "assume is a skylark".
Thanks Rob, I'll correct the label, much appreciated.
Hazel definitely a Dunlin, they loose that black tum in the winter months and then develop it again next breeding season. Its very distinctive of Dunlin. That's a great result for the Terns with the local support. They have similar programs along the N Norfolk coast for Plover and other waders. Great photos as usual.
Hazel, you've changed the skylark to a meadow pipit. The one I referred to was the first batch of photos. Down below the stonechat photo.